Alex left the bathroom refreshed. He finished wiping himself dry and put on a clean t-shirt and a pair of shorts. He left his hair uncombed, and walked out of the bedroom, leaving the small wooden box on the bed where he had casually thrown it earlier.
Leyna was sitting on the sofa, a glass of juice she had served for herself on the table before her. Looking to the side, around ten cardboard boxes of consistent sizes were on and around the countertop in the kitchen.
"Alright, tell me why you are here, dear big sister?"
The woman raised her head from her phone, and looked at him with appreciation in her eyes, not at his charm, but at his attention to personal hygiene. Then she smiled like an elder sister:
"First of all, the chairman asked me to thank you for the company you have found for her. She said thanks to that, the house is a little more lively now."
Alex showed no surprise. He only smiled slightly in response:
"Is Ga-yeong behaving herself now?"
Leyna laughed:
"She wouldn't dare do otherwise. Ever since moving in, the most she has been allowed to do is to help Aunt Lee in the kitchen, nothing else. Under the gaze of the chairman, she is barely above her husband in the hierarchy at home."
Mark's face came to Alex's mind, along with his miserable situation, and he couldn't help but laugh. Really, there was Ga-yeong, his wife, then his mother, Aunt Lee. And beyond those two, higher in the hierarchy, there was Grace, the owner of the house who Aunt Lee was serving as the housekeeper of, and who had watched Mark grow.
Indeed, in a house like that, it was impossible for the man to have any authority.
His face bright with amusement, Alex went to sit across from Leyna, and he took a sip of her drink, before he leaned back with a contented exhale. He turned to look at the bright sky beyond the balcony, and asked faintly:
"How is mom?"
Leyna followed Alex's gaze, but didn't find the sky as interesting as he seemed to be finding it. Or maybe it was just something he was diverting his attention with.
Leyna shook her head slightly, and looked at the younger man:
"The chairman is fine. An uncertainty can not make her depressed, and from what I know, she has not felt any more pain in her lower abdomen last night and this morning."
Alex looked back at Leyna with a raised eyebrow:
"Are you sure you would have known about it if she has felt anything again later?"
After looking at him for a moment, Leyna shook her head:
"Indeed, I would not have known."
Silence descended over the living room, the subtle noise of the world becoming the only thing preventing true quiet from taking over.
Leyna exhaled, and took a sip from the glass of juice on the table. Alex took a deep breath, then stopped lingering on the matter. He squarely looked at his guest, his face serious:
"Alright, you have delivered my mother's message, and I have heard the news from home. Now, tell me, what are you doing coming here so early in the morning?"
Leyna looked at Alex, then elegantly picked up the glass of juice again and slowly drank it with a smile. She didn't look in a hurry at all, and Alex also showed no impatience. He waited until she was done, and his patience had her rolling her eyes because it was not fun at all.
She stopped keeping the suspense, and asked instead after pulling the glass away from her red lips:
"Didn't you guess the answer already?"
The corner of Alex's mouth twitched. He glanced at the boxes at the side, and muttered loud enough for his guest to hear:
"That's exactly why I'm not happy to see you."
Leyna laughed, and lowered the glass in her hand down. She pointed at the boxes with an amused smile and explained:
"The chairman asked me to make sure you know what you have to know about the Group, so I compiled the information on the recent activities considering past events that are still relevant, present happenings, and future strategies along with the reasoning they are based on."
Alex fixed his eyes hiding the scowl he was trying not to show onto his guest. But at last, it still showed as he scoffed:
"And after compiling the information, you still ended up with that many boxes full of papers."
Leyna raised her glass of juice up again with a smile:
"I tried very hard already. After all, don't forget that Arland Group is very, very big."
In response to that beautiful, amused smile, Alex only rolled his eyes.
"And before I forget, there are some files on pen drives inside some of the boxes."
After she finished speaking, she took another sip of her drink.
Alex gave the black-haired woman a dead look, before he groaned, and leaned his head back to face the ceiling.
"Urgh, can't you guys let me enjoy my last weekend of freedom in peace? What sin have I committed to deserve this?"
It was a rhetorical question he was using to vent his frustration at the situation, but then a mocking answer came to drive the pike deeper in his heart:
"The sin of loving your mother and wanting her to rest?"
Those words brought back to mind the blow below the belt his mother had taken advantage of the situation to dish him, and Alex deflated even further. He sank into the comfortable sofa while exhaling a curse:
"Damnit!"
He remained sprawled on the sofa, aimlessly looking at the ceiling for a while, before he raised his head again to look at the rock that had fallen into his calm pond called 'weekend'. The smile she offered him, partly amused, partly entertained, irked him, so he stood up to snatch the glass tainted with red lipstick at the edge. He drained the rest of the juice inside, and turned away after rolling his eyes at her unchanged smile.
He walked toward the calamitous gifts she had brought him, his steps drained of the energy he had woken up with. As he left, his dry voice came in a grumble loud enough to be heard by the only other person in the room:
"I swear, the first thing I will do when I take over my post will be to demote you so that you can experience the same amount of love I'm being given."
Leyna's smile didn't falter. She looked deeply at the back that seemed to be supporting the woes of the world, then happily exclaimed:
"Alright!"